Living room left blood-soaked after killing of Angela Wrightson

Hartlepool woman Angela Wrightson was battered all around her living room which was left looking like the scene of a bloodbath, a court heard.

Blood was found on four walls, the furniture and flooring and even the ceiling of the room in which she was brutally killed, a jury has been told.

The assault on Angela Wrightson appeared to be confined to the living room and had progressed right the way around that room.

Dr Gemma Escott

The body of Ms Wrightson, 39, was discovered with more than 100 different injuries in the living room of her Hartlepool home in December 2014.

Two schoolgirls, aged 13 and 14 at the time of the killing, deny murder and are being tried at Leeds Crown Court.

Giving her second day of evidence, forensic scientist Dr Gemma Escott told the hearing more details following her examination of the living room area of Ms Wrightson’s Stephen Street home.

The court heard Ms Wrightson was attacked using a variety of household items, including a metal cooking strainer, a kettle, picture frames, a wooden stick with screws pretruding from it, a printer, a wicker coffee table, a television, a ceramic box and even a shovel.

Her body was discovered by her landlord on a red sofa in the room the morning she was killed stripped from the waist down.

Answering questions put to her by prosecutor Nicholas Campbell QC, Ms Escott told the jury there was evidence of blood staining on all three sofas in the room, on the fireplace and floor.

A hand print of blood has since been identified as having been placed on the back wall of the living room by the older defendant.

Asked about blood staining on the wall directly behind the green sofa, Ms Escott said: “My conclusion was that because of the unusual nature of some of the weapons, particularly the strainer where the holes

might have forced blood out in an unusual way, that it was possible that the stains on this wall had been obtained while the deceased was on the sofa.”

An empty washing up liquid bottle and various shampoo containers were also discovered during the examination, but Ms Escott concluded that there was “no sustained attempt to clean up the extensive blood staining”.

Blood was found on an upturned television stand and on video boxes in one corner of the room.